Does everybody know who Tracey Ullman is? It really helps to be completely smitten with her before you watch this segment, because it’s a lovefest. OK, quick sidebar for those who aren't up on her: Tracey Ullman is a British comedian best known for her Fox variety show, The Tracey Ullman Show, which ran from 1987-1990 and was hysterical. Most notably, it’s where The Simpsons were born (they ran over 40 one-minute shorts), which is why a lot of the characters are voiced by “Ullman” actors like Dan Castellaneta playing Homer and Krusty. Paula Abdul was the choreographer for the show. Speaking of music and random facts, Tracey was also a singer signed to the punk label Stiff Records (which also reps Elvis Costello). In 2000, Tracey would launch a fashion shopping site purpleskirt.com (now defunct), and host a show about style for Oxygen in 2001.

Back to the segment.

This is one of my favorite moments with Cindy Crawford as host. Cindy and Tracey are at the Plaza Hotel, because the suites had just been redecorated by Ivana Trump (could that sentence BE more '90s??!!). It’s such a classic Eloise situation: Cindy and Tracey are clowning around, dancing on table tops and jumping on chaises with their shoes on. It’s the first time you get a real appreciation for Cindy’s versatility and intuition for improv--she just goes for it. At one point they Vogue. Poorly. It's fantastic.

The ladies take turns modeling Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, Todd Oldham, Ronaldus Shamask and Moschino. It’s such a good universe crossover moment to see two women, successful in different industries, enjoying each other’s company. Plus, the dynamic is awesome since Tracey and Cindy play off each other beautifully. Cindy even does a quick impression of Ivana Trump in front of the Emmy award-winning actress, which is admirably ballsy. It’s so likable and cute. Cindy plays a solid straight man since Tracey’s doing this massive, hammy, room-filling schtick. And even though Cindy gets her hair done (in a French twist obviously, this is the ’90s) and struts like an expert, this is the moment she really comes into her own as a TV host. By the end they’re just pitching fake tantrums about the clothes and laughing at each other. A decade later, Cindy appeared on Tracey’s style show, massively pregnant, and they had a ball there, too.

Lucie de la Falaise might not be as immediately recognizable as a Naomi Campbell, but she was the face of Yves Saint Laurent cosmetics and is worth knowing for a slew of fashion trivia reasons. First of all, her aunt, the late Loulou de la Falaise, was a muse and collaborator for Saint Laurent, the brilliant bespectacled French couture designer, a generation before. Loulou’s mother Maxime was also a model and a food writer. Lucie, who was discovered by Andre Leon Talley, was one of the last brides (for those who don’t know, a wedding dress was often the finale for couture shows) for YSL in F/W 1998 right before the designer retired.

Lucie’s wide-set eyes and small, regal features made for an aloof countenance that was the perfect sort of posh for Chloé and Davidoff campaigns in the early '90s; she has also worked with Steven Meisel and Bruce Weber. Her brother, Daniel de la Falaise, was also a model, and appeared in Madonna’s book Sex. (Daniel is smoking hot. Seriously, go Google his name alongside Madonna immediately.) Funnily enough, in this interview Lucie mentions that she’d just seen the Rolling Stones in concert and is “quite keen on them at the moment,” which is gloriously portentous, considering that she’d go on to marry Keith Richards' son, Marlon Richards, after meeting him on a blind date. Marlon and Lucie have three kids; their daughter was a bridesmaid at Kate Moss’s 2011 wedding. In 2011, Lucie briefly returned to modeling for Giambattista Valli for Moncler, and in a Vanity Fair editorial, with Stefano Pilati, for YSL. Full circle, people.

In this clip, we've got Liv Tyler, who had just started her modeling career six months prior, taking us back-to-school shopping BECAUSE SHE IS IN THE 9TH GRADE. The daughter of rock n' roll royalty (her dad is Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, who some of you babies will only know as the dude who used to be an American Idol judge) is basically a zygote here and it's adorable because we've given her $200 to go shopping and she manages to find several outfits even though H&M and Forever 21 didn't exist yet.

I love how easygoing she is in her crossbody bag, simple black shorts and clogs and we make a beeline for Stussy where she tries on a bunch of oversized, striped tees, bucket hats (LOL) and stove pipe denim knee shorts (LOLOL). Then it's off to John Fluevog to try on some shoes and the Army Navy store for some basics like white tees. There's also a trip to vintage store Reminiscence (that still exists in the flatiron district!) and all the footage is interspersed with B-roll of Liv onset of a fashion shoot where her bangs are blown out and she wears velvet headbands and satin gloves because it is 1992.

Once all the booty is collected, she cooks up some outfits together and we learn that this beautiful girl who would become a cosmetics spokesperson and actress loves everything super hip-hop like oversized everything, backwards caps, Stan Smith adidas sneakers and gold. She also puts together a school girl look with a midriff-bearing tied-up white blouse, plaid skirt and white tights that's very reminiscent of her appearance in her dad's "Crazy" video two years later as well as a super-weird-but-awesome houndstooth-overall-midi-skirt-tunic thing that she wears with a white tee.

It's like going shopping with a mortal, human, unfamous friend, which is what makes it and her so great.

DEMYSTIFYING THE FASHION INDUSTRY: TODD OLDHAM REDECORATES HIS HOME AND DESIGNS A COLLECTION

Todd Oldham refurbishes his house on a budget in 1992.Photo: MTV

In this segment, we learn how a designer’s mind works: In redecorating his home, Todd came up with the “Interiors” theme of his Fall 1992 collection. It’s delightful to see how the fringe trim of decorative pillows becomes tiers on a mini skirt for a very young Tyra Banks; striped carpets are re-imagined as psychedelic pantsuits for Veronica Webb; two "junky" (his words, not ours!) paintings that hang on Todd’s walls become the front and back of a skirt, complete with borders that evoke the paintings’ frames. There is a leopard-print fur chaise (faux, since Todd loves animals) that becomes a luxurious, long coat as well as a printed blouse. Todd’s search for a gilt mirror becomes the inspiration for a sequin shift dress.

Then, Todd hits the flea market with Angel, his design assistant. In the same breezy, organic way we saw Todd creating his “furniture fashion,” he picks up a couch, a chair and an end table and remixes them in mere hours with the help of fabric remnants, a glue gun, safety pins, spray paint, permanent fabric dye, markers, bits of porcelain and roofing nails.

It all looks pretty ’90s (see: painted swirls on a velvet chair), but it’s great to watch a celebrated designer not only walk you through his creative process and invite you into his brain and home, but then to have him show you in totally non-scary ways how to redecorate, employing what he calls “the cheesiest recover.” It's not intimidating at all. Even in a sped-up montage, you can see where Todd applies the glue, how he uses safety pins to create the hem of the sofa cover and how tucking all the excess fabric or cutting it away makes for a surprisingly effective workaround in place of using a sewing machine. Todd also talks about the importance of recycling, which is another element that makes Todd’s design philosophy so accessible. (That said, these days, I’d have everything closely checked for bedbugs.)

Since it was a television show targeted predominantly to young girls that covered fashion and beauty, House of Style was conscious about addressing the topic of eating disorders. In this segment, we speak to Linda Wells, EIC of Allure magazine; eating disorder specialist Dr. Ivy Marcus; and physician Woodson Merrell. Most importantly, we meet a teen and learn about her battle with bulimia. Like the testimonial-based coverage of women’s health issues in magazines like Sassy, these moments of candor were intended to resonate with kids watching the show who may identify with the anecdotes and emotions, and to help viewers recognize that they might need to seek help.

Kate Moss’s arrival on the scene marks the fashion industry’s response to the grunge movement that dominated youth culture and music at the time. The doe-eyed British waif was notable not only because she was antithetical to the buxom, bodacious, big-haired glamour of the supermodels who came before, but because she stood at just 5’6”—a height that was widely considered undesirable in her line of work. The notable thing about Kate (and, of course, the passage of time and her relevance throughout the next decades would prove as much) is that she did not pave the way for a generation of shorter girls: Kate Moss was the exception and an outlier. Another effect of her stature within the industry is that she couldn’t typically be shot for campaigns and fashion editorial flanked by a pack of other girls. In any iconic “here are all the supermodels” round-up shot by Steven Meisel or the like, Moss would look odd, and was therefore frequently shot by herself, which only contributed to her air of vulnerability and her persona as a loner. The CK One group shot ads are obviously the exception, though it should be considered how stark the campaign is and how much the other models featured therein are similarly waifish and un-modelly.

Some argue that Kate Moss does not qualify as a supermodel (and the debate as to who coined the phrase and whether it stretches back far enough to include Lauren Hutton, or extends forward to members of later generations, like Gisele Bündchen still rages) but if you define the term based on money earned, status achieved, and impact, Kate absolutely qualifies. Her ascension represents a critical turning point and redefined ’90s beauty. She is the line between grunge and glamour. In this introductory segment, Kate smiles goofily, talks about how her shoulders are her best feature and how she didn’t get to hang out with Mark Wahlberg during the CK jeans shoot because his "posse" was there the entire time. She is also one of the few fledgling models who does not seem intimidated by any other models, established or otherwise.

As with the furniture in the earlier installment, Todd’s attitude is irreverent and inventive toward the clothes he thinks teens should be wearing. It’s reassuring once again that a world-renowned designer is giving kids the greenlight to shun brands and expensive gear; at one point, Todd even says that thrift-store finds could be considered analogous to couture because time has guaranteed that they’re one-of-a-kind. Todd suggests starting in the department that is your favorite, and looking for signs like empty hangers to see what others have “stashed” on the floor directly underneath. For the ladies, he suggests shopping in the men’s and little boys’ department and advises dudes to “paper bag” their pants and opt for a much larger waist size than they’d typically wear. A quick tutorial on “how to layer,” and why you shouldn’t be afraid to buy suits and discard the undesirable top or bottom ends the segment—but not before Todd instructs us to do our own alterations: Nobody cares if you screw up your own inexpensive stuff.

The ’70s look is still going strong, with platforms, wedges, berets, crochet dusters, bell bottoms and hot pants. But there's a notable migration into grunge with beanies, loose jackets, Dr. Martens boots, teeny-tiny eyebrows and stripes aplenty. There is slouchy sleepwear at Perry Ellis by Marc Jacobs (SUCH A PIVOTAL COLLECTION!!!), straggly lank hair at Calvin Klein. Millinery is all over the place from gigantic velvet “Blossom” hats to a straw pith helmet contraption at Byron Lars that is highly evocative of the black “Darth Vader” visor shown for 2012 by Nicolas Ghesqueire for Balenciaga that retailed for a cool $3,000. Details, people, details.

Todd Oldham wasn’t just about arts and crafts and baggy trousers; the designer was passionate about promoting a message. In this Valentine’s Day segment, he instructs us to make mixtapes and beaded flowers for our friends and loved ones—but not before giving love to his favorite charity, Paws and Powers, which helps homebound people with AIDS to keep and care for their pets. He makes a point of namedropping artist Patrick O’Connell for creating the iconic AIDS red ribbon, and advises us not to let a day go by without "honoring our sweethearts with AIDS." It’s a beautiful moment in a feature that could have skewed perfunctory and commercial and yet another reminder to MTV viewers to think of the thousands who died of the virus each year nationwide.

If you’re unfamiliar with the name Eve Salvail, then perhaps you’ll remember her as that one model with the dragon tattoo on her shaved head. (The original girl with a dragon tattoo, so to speak.) Eve was living in a tiny, rural town in Mantane, Quebec when she was discovered at age 18 and brought into the high-fashion scene by Jean Paul Gaultier. In this segment, Eve plays up her goth appeal in a giant, white, poet blouse and countless candles, and speaks in French or heavily-accented English about her passion for art: “Instead of killing people, I draw.” Cool. She obviously enjoys her macabre appearance, often treating coats and cardigans like capes on the runway. Gaultier admires the duality of her beauty, describing it as a mix of romantic and violent, and there is definitely something arresting about Eve’s bald head atop a bright Chanel suit, just as it is transfixing to watch her features soften when she’s wearing the oversized, menswear-inspired fashions of the early ’90s. It’s this unique quality that makes Eve fantastic for music videos and stylized movies. As such, you’ll find her brandishing her teeth frequently as a Nosferatu-ish vampire in the video for Lenny Kravitz’s “Is There Any Love In Your Heart,” and bit parts in The Fifth Element and Zoolander. Eve had been growing her hair out to a platinum buzzcut for several years following her retirement from modeling, but she returned to the runway—complete with a shaved head and exposed tattoo—for Jean Paul Gaultier’s 2011/2012 Couture show, and for his Fall/Winter 2011/2012 Ready-To-Wear collection.

At Liberace’s house (LOL), Todd Oldham styles a swimsuit shoot for ELLEmagazine, and while the editorial features, lean, leggy ladies with outrageous, brightly-colored wigs, Todd takes the time to advise us regular girls on how to buy a flattering swimsuit. He also shares little styling tricks for taking better photos, like taping girls’ boobs together and clamping suits in for a tighter fit; his demeanor on-set is just as casual and personable as in his thrifting segments. Todd highlights the difference between a fashion shoot and real life while picking out details like halter straps for a bustier girl, or selecting a high-cut leg to elongate and slenderize the thigh. He even gets silly remarking on whether or not he accidentally spat onto the camera lens, and humanizes models by drawing attention to foam cutlets that pad their physiques. One model mentions how much she dislikes her back, due to a birth mark which Todd promptly calls shapely and cute. Todd informs us that having to try on 30-40 suits before finding the right one is absolutely normal; that we should be patient and kind to ourselves; and that it’s a hot attitude that makes one look fierce in a swimsuit. It’s another PSA with a light touch, courtesy of the wonderful Todd Oldham.

Puma Clydes (as popularized by the Beastie Boys) were one of the coolest shoes for summer in 1993.Photo: MTV

What’s in for the summer of ’93? Everything from gingham kitten-heel mules to platform sneakers. There’s a huge emphasis on Puma Clydes (as popularized by the Beastie Boys, as well as student platform clog heels that are very much back in style over 20 years later.

Cindy and a Fredro Starr-less Onyx go grocery shopping at a health food store. This is a segment created to educate college kids about nutrition so that they can avoid gaining the 15-20 pounds that we all inevitably gain that first year because class feels entirely optional and eating a chimichanga at 4 AM seemed like a good idea at the time. There are interstitials, with nutritionist Jennifer Stack, advising us against believing claims made on the front of pre-packaged food, and advising viewers to refer to the side panel for concrete nutritional information. Stack also suggests eating dry cereal as a snack, and seeking out pre-washed, pre-cut vegetables. It’s all pretty straightforward and ’90s. So, like, circa when everybody ate carbs.

Cindy and Onyx eat Fig Newtons because they have zero fat (ahem: despite the sugar content). At one point, Sticky Fingaz mentions that the store’s Corn Flakes and Cheerios are fake: They’re the small-box organic kind called “Oatios” that you often see at stores that feature juice bars. On that topic, Cindy drags Suavé, Sticky and the late Big DS to try shots of wheatgrass juice. Despite all the health benefits, the three pass on doing the shot and fake Cindy out, who drinks hers. While I understand that the segment is designed to appeal to college-aged teens by touting a healthy message from their favorite rappers, the piece feels disjointed. These guys could care less about fondling gourds at the health food store. The highlight is when Cindy blots Sticky Fingaz’s T-zone. It’s very stage mom in the best way.

Fall 1993 is just like every other season since time immemorial in that white shirts are a big deal. These white shirts feature hints of the ’60s and ’70s: billowing, off-the-shoulder poet blouses with exaggerated, pointy collars that harken back to polyester leisure suits. French cuffs were also huge, as was layered suiting. This was a season for white shirts with vests; and suit-weight, sleeveless dresses with thick straps worn over them. We run the gamut from tunic-length tops with belts and a harlequin shirt from Dolce & Gabbana that features a massive Elizabethan ruff (on the lovely Kate Moss) from the other collection they design, Complice. We see offerings from Byron Lars, Rifat Ozbek, Atsuro Tayamo, Chanel, and Todd Oldham: They’re accessible and easy to mimic, and the key here is understanding how each shirt is styled and how the different silhouettes and design features are accentuated to create a high-fashion twist on a staple.

Designer and 'House of Style' correspondent Todd Oldham makes accessories for less than $1.98 in 1993.Photo: MTV

It’s both laudable and laughable that House of Style gave Todd a budget of $2.00 to remix a fall wardrobe. It’s sort of like Rachael’s Ray’s “40 Dollars a Day,” in which she barely leaves a tip and never, EVER has a cocktail, because the $1.98 does not include things like whole sweaters, boots, and a hacksaw. What it does include is a slew of Sharpies, embroidery thread, beets (yup, like the kind for borscht) and a great deal of pluck and adorable ingenuity.

This particular “Todd Time” feels like we’re playing a practical joke on him, and to his credit, he creates some fascinating fashion and does lay groundwork for some ideas that you can apply to pretty much any item of clothing. There is a patchwork sweater created out of 5 other sweaters (that this fits the $1.98 budget is totally lol); given how huge patchwork was as a trend in the ’90s, it’s not a bad idea. Cutting up ill-fitting or moth-eaten sweaters in large pieces (the key being to cut an entire chest section and part of an armscye so that you don’t actually have to construct a sweater out of small swatches) and sewing them together in a large, looping, visible stitches creates a sort of frankensweater that you can at the very least guarantee no one else will have. An errant piece with arms makes a giant, floppy beanie that sort of looks like those tie-top Triple 5 Soul hats. A hacksaw applied to a pair of boots creates a rather "bless-its-heart" looking, peep-toe-boot-flip-flop situation, and bisected beets dye pink polka dots onto an old striped button-down. Sharpie squiggles finish off the look, and the whole thing is plunged into salted water for the vegetable dye to set. A backpack gets zipper pulls made out of twigs. For your efforts, the end result evokes a very crafty hobo.

The entire back-to-school episode feels very much like a teen magazine except that here we get to see real professionals bringing the lessons to life with moving images. Makeup artist Carol Shaw holds our hand and walks us through a series of small, manageable info nuggets on how to apply different cosmetics. Carol is also the founder of the makeup company Lorac (“Carol” backwards) that’s still popular today, but her tips are wholly product agnostic.

Carol suggests fragrance-free products, and instructs us on how to bend the wand of a new tube of Maybelline Great Lash so that you can pile it on with more accuracy. She also advises us to smile while applying blush so that we know where it goes; she recommends light coverage on foundation because in that case (unlike mascara), less is more. She tells us that moisturizer, cleanser and toner are all you need for a skin-care regimen, as most of us already know. The one thing she teaches that’s a true boon is how to use foundation to lighten lipstick colors, and how to use the back of your hand like a painter’s mixing palette to create the hue you want. This way you can create an entire gradient of browns, peaches, pinks and reds from a single tube. Definitely handy advice for a college kid on a budget.

If you ever wanted to see Cindy in a pantsuit, this would be the time. In this segment, Cindy attends Paris Fashion Week with Evyan Metzner, fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar. For the first show, Cindy shadows Evyan — who, during a typical fashion week, will attend 8-10 shows a day. Her schedule is an intricate grid that begins at 8:30 AM and often doesn’t end until 11 at night. Having previously learned what a typical fashion show at Paris costs and what it’s like backstage, this time we learn about the specific responsibilities of a fashion editor.

First of all, we learn all about the front row, and the unwritten politics of who gets to sit where. Remember, this too is way before the advent of the internet where the placement politics weren't common knowledge. We learn that well-connected editors, and buyers with large, important accounts, get to sit in front, along with celebrities and the models’ rock star husbands. Then, there’s the issue of a sketchbook. Long before the Instagram feeding frenzy and live-tweeted descriptions from every single attendee, you had to draw quick outlines so that you could remember trends as they developed over the week. A great example here is a shirt cropped so short that it reveals lower-boob cleavage (or “neathage,” as some of us call it). Cindy and Evyan go backstage to congratulate Christian Lacroix and conduct a quick interview.

For her second stint as fashion editor, Cindy goes solo, and we’re invited into her Parisian hotel bathroom to watch her get ready. It is here that we learn two important things: that there’s a travel blow dryer attachment that’s like one of those old-fashioned dryers that housewives from the ’50s would sit under to set their hair; and what Richard Gere looks like in a hotel robe. At one point, he even holds a boom mic. Cindy gets into another trouser suit, a choker, and lace-up boots, and this time Cindy mentions having felt a pang of envy at being on the other side of the runway, because Helena looked so beautiful walking down it.

Kate Moss wasn’t the only model who signaled the arrival of a new era of beauty. Shalom Harlow and Amber Valletta were a couple of the other “New Girls” anointed by the rainmaking photographers and editors. There was definitely a year in my childhood when Amber or Shalom or Amber and Shalom dominated most of the American Vogue covers. There’s a regal, expensive quality about Amber, like she was born in Monaco and attended regattas and races as a small child while learning 11 languages. Despite her bearing, Amber started out in Tulsa, Oklahoma at age 15; four years from the time of this interview. She mentions that she had to take a class when she started out, and that her walk was awful and ungainly. She was considered too awkward and too athletic in her modeling class, but it’s her boyish physique and innocent, wide-set eyes that made her an important face in the dreamy, grunge movement typified by Kate Moss.

Amber mentions being a peaceful person who prioritizes happiness; her humility doesn’t seem insincere, but it does seem somewhat practiced. Amber reads slightly media-trained in a way that neither the supermodels nor Kate Moss displayed, which also reminds us that the job of being a model has changed. This feels like the beginning of the trend when all models parroted the party line of having been an “ugly duckling” or a “tomboy” as a part of their origin mythology. This pre-packaged story and the distortion of the paparazzi lens would signal the beginning of the end of the candid interviews we’d previously enjoyed from the personalities involved in the modeling industry. At this point, MTV had ushered in the era of reality television with the first two seasons of The Real World. Non-actors became more aware of how they were being portrayed on camera and expected to have to talk about themselves. Unlike Cindy, for whom "having a voice" was a new experience, Amber anticipates interviews as part of the job of being a model and celebrity. You can feel this shift in the level of preparedness. Sadly, with this new type of access, we'd lose a lot of the authenticity. Basically, this person saying she's "peaceful" is the sound of a million publicists cashing checks.

Todd hits Paris too, which blessedly means designer-on-designer interviews—a format, and a specific kind of chemistry, that we’ve yet to enjoy in the show. First off is Andre Walker, a downtown New York darling who held his first show at age 15 in a Brooklyn nightclub called Oasis. He worked with Willi Smith (the designer who famously created the gown Mary Jane Watson wore to marry Peter Parker in the 1987 Spiderman comic) after dropping out of high school. His fall 1993 showcase, entitled “Someone I’m In Love With Then,” is a mixture of surprisingly wearable cotton sportswear with off-kilter cuts and details.

The gathered and ballooned skirts are gorgeously cut, and despite zany stunts — like a dress called the “Nude Housewife,” with a back cut so low that it threatens to expose butt crack (and considering the bum cleavage made famous by Alexander McQueen, this is all excellent territory) — there’s an unmistakable calculation in the execution. Everything falls exactly as the designer intended. Andre says things like, “I knew [The Nude Housewife dress] was gross, but I had to take that risk. Tomorrow is gonna be grosser than today. ‘Go grosser’ is the motto of the season.” He also describes the silhouettes as “corny,” but the deliberately vague and distracting language does nothing to detract from the clothes or the fact that his flannel shirt is actually cut precisely to show an empire waist only from certain angles. Todd is smitten. Andre has since created a magazine called This Is What It Made Us Think About that’s sold exclusively in select boutiques. The first issue sold for $375. Another fashion tidbit that’s just as priceless? Andre worked closely with Marc Jacobs for a decade, until Marc fired him. Via text message. The two remain friends.

Despite the recent hullabaloo surrounding Galliano’s drunken rants and his subsequent displacement at Dior, in 1993, the designer was at the absolute peak of his career. There’s an elaborate fashion story behind this collection that follows an 1860s princess named Lucretia, who is banished while wearing enormous skirts and ringlet pigtails and shirts that are falling to pieces. She then somehow ends up in the Scottish highlands wearing jaunty, meticulously shrunken hats and hiked-up skirts because she’s met the “dotty duke” and “dotty duchess,” who ply her with gambling and gin. Of course, Lucretia then meets her prince and marries him, but this is like watching a porn with a backstory because the narrative does nothing other than to create a vehicle for the breathtaking breadth and depth of Galliano’s vision and talent.

Todd remarks how difficult it is to cut and sew pieces on the bias as Galliano does, and as difficult as it is to create volume for the 1860s period and then to hike it all up for the highlands, the real nut is how John Galliano creates everything at an angle. His slinky, silky, weightless dresses for the wedding scene are a miracle. And that he makes a see-through panel of scalloped edges in tissue-thin fabric, with pieces cut and sewn sideways to move and hug the topography of the female form, is unparalleled. Pun intended.

This could have been just another segment where we trail Cindy to the set of a magazine shoot, but this is about getting to see Max Vadukul’s unusual technique. Despite having worked multiple times with Max, the esteemed former staff photographer for The New Yorker, Cindy seems shy here. She clearly doesn’t know what to expect, and the editorial has Cindy completely stripped down, with unfussy, flattened hair and minimal makeup, so she seems particularly exposed.

Max — who is also known for shooting black-and-white Yohji Yamamoto ad campaigns — has a tiny mustache, circular glasses and a calm disposition. He takes complete advantage of Cindy’s rare vulnerability by asking her a series of disquieting questions to evoke new expressions. He asks how she’d feel if she discovered her husband in bed with another woman. He then asks her to leap and to show him her feet while closing way in to ask how she’d feel if she found out she was having triplets. There’s constant movement and you can tell that Cindy doesn’t quite know what she looks like. It’s refreshing to see her have to work for it. Because the questions and emotions require her to act, we see a new self-consciousness from our now familiar House of Style host, and a new facet of what it’s like on the set of this particular photographer’s shoot.

Before he was the silver fox host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart was a big deal at MTV, helming his own eponymous talk show from 1993-1994. His time slot pitted him against late-night stalwarts like Leno and Letterman, so his run ended up being short-lived. Which is a huge shame because the show was critical for two reasons. One, it featured musical guests who at the time could not otherwise get the shine: Marilyn Manson, Sunny Day Real Estate, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Slayer and Biggie. Another thing is that the producer of The Jon Stewart Show, Madeleine Smithberg, would go on to create The Daily Show, which has of course seen an extraordinary, award-winning run, with Stewart at the helm since Craig Kilborn peaced in the late ’90s.

In this clip, we see Jon shadowing Cindy on her errands, to comedic effect. He cracks everybody up, but it’s sorta sadface because it’s like watching some poor bastard get “friend zoned” by a hot chick who just wants a smart, funny dude to tag along behind her like some neutered lapdog. They visit Cindy’s modeling agency, Elite, where they go through Cindy’s schedule with her agent and clown around. Jon’s recognized by some of the agency’s new faces, and gets to briefly man a casting couch. The floppy-haired comic then accompanies the model to her mani/pedi appointment at Stephen Knoll. He remarks upon how absurd it is that women sit around “pruning each other” while having his feet massaged and his hands moisturized, and then they hit the gym for Cindy’s workout with trainer Radu. Medicine ball sit-ups and basketball end the day; with Jon smoking cigarettes during his crunches.

On the runways of Chloe, Byron Lars, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Anna Sui, Marcel Marongiv, John Galliano, and Thierry Mugler, several trends are in raging for dominance. Underwear as outerwear, as seen in prior seasons, is still going strong, this time with long, spaghetti-strapped slips worn as dresses. Hair is piled high, curled and festooned with trails of ribbons. Anna Sui dominates the grunge baby doll scene with A-line mini-dresses with large collars on androgynous model (and Angelina Jolie ex) Jenny Shimizu, as well as on male models. Another male model, Donovan, does the robot on the runway in a metallic suit (also at Sui). And the late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence walks hand-in-hand with his girlfriend, Helena Christensen at Thierry Mugler. Hutchence has a large silver spike through his nose, and Christensen wears a leather bustier dress covered in spikes and fringe.

The best show is John Galliano’s (discussed at length in an earlier episode). The worst, in my personal opinion, is a rare misstep from Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel. The clownishly exaggerated “hip-hop-inspired” knee shorts with suspenders are unflattering, with a voyeuristic petting-zoo philosophy that borders on racism. The hair is vexing as well: Meant to evoke natural hair that has been poorly relaxed, it just looks bedraggled and messy.

Todd Oldham is a godsend. Here, he teaches us a classic “from the runway to the real world” lesson in layering, starting out with an idea from his own show. For the runway, Todd paired a cropped crochet sweater over a long, patterned georgette shirt; for an alternate version, he advises us to shop in the kid’s section of The Gap for a tiny sweater vest to wear over any filmy shirt. Next up is a nod to the Comme Des Garçons trick of putting a fitted, thin, crew-neck, long-sleeved sweater over a suit jacket or blazer to reveal the large patch pockets of the jacket that now billows out slightly at the waist.

At Rifat Ozbek, a bra is worn over a mock turtleneck to showcase “underlayering” — putting what you’d typically wear underneath over your outside clothes. A prime example of this is to put a tank top over a long-sleeved shirt. Mixing seasons is another way to rethink layers, like wearing a summer dress over a sweater or a white cotton peasant blouse over a thick wool turtleneck. It’s more instruction on how to style things you already own, using cues from your favorite designers. Todd’s cheat sheet is all about understanding proportion, a keen sense of color and a hefty dose of attitude.

In many ways, Sibyl Buck epitomizes the lifestyle aspects of the grunge movement. Kate Moss and Amber Valletta evoke a type of stylized grunge or “fashion grunge,” with their pale skin, doe eyes and seemingly meek dispositions. The critical difference is that they were also both versatile in a way that made them aesthetically malleable depending on the job or designer.

Sibyl Buck, with her septum piercing and dreadlocked red hair, was often hired for her specific look. During a tour of her apartment, we go through her music collection; she cites The Melvins and Bad Brains as favorites. Some headbanging takes place before she shows off her overalls collection; then we’re taken up to her roof to watch her skateboard. She is very much a tomboy — all elbows and knees — and she notes that her clients hate how often she shows up for jobs with scabs all over her legs. Sibyl quit modeling in 1998 to focus on a music career: She currently plays bass for The Lonely Astronauts.

In 1994, long before it was an Olympic sport, snowboarding was still very much defined as an alternative to skiing. The aesthetic, as such, was a sharp departure from neon, preppy, matching outfits, and much more closely aligned with skate clothing of the era. The jackets were oversized and the pants were “phat” (true story) to allow for layering and warmth. The really interesting part of this segment is how far technology has come since snowboarding grew as an industry. Back then, the larger clothing allowed for higher mobility, whereas contemporary textile technology allows for four-way stretch in waterproof, shell-covered fleece that’s infinitely less cumbersome and less reliant on layers.

The snowboarding kids of almost 20 years ago employ an admirable degree of DIY ingenuity to combat such functional shortcomings. They saw off the top of soft boots for added movement, layer boots, wear several mitts or “hot pads” together keep their hands warm, some layers even looking like they’re covered in duct tape. In 1994, snowboarders were still the “pirates of the mountain,” and the long-haired kids freezing their asses off definitely show a great deal of commitment.

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